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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

XIII. THE ORIENT AGAINST THE OCCIDENT: RISE AND SPREAD OF ISLAM, 622-1058 A.D.

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

Arabia and the Arabs   * Mohammed: Prophet and Statesman, 622-632 A.D.   * Islam and the Koran   * Expansion of Islam in Asia and Egypt   * Expansion of Islam in North Africa and Spain   * The Caliphate and its Disruption, 632-1058 A.D.   * Arabian Civilization   * The Influence of Islam

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TREATMENT OF THE CONQUERED PEOPLES

According to the strict teaching of the Koran, those who refused to accept Islam were either to be killed or to be reduced to slavery. As a matter of fact, the Arabs treated their new subjects with marked liberality. No massacres and no persecutions occurred. The conquered peoples were allowed to retain their own religions, on condition of paying ample tribute. In course of time, however, many of the Christians in Syria and Egypt and most of the Zoroastrians in Persia adopted Islam, in order that they might acquire the rights and privileges of Moslem citizens.

LATER ARAB CONQUESTS

The sweeping conquests of the decade 632-642 A.D. were followed in later years by a further extension of the boundaries of the Arabian Empire. In the remote East the Arabs sent their victorious armies beyond the Oxus and Indus rivers to central Asia and India. They captured the island of Cyprus, annexed parts of Armenia and Asia Minor, and at length threatened to take Constantinople. Had that city fallen, all eastern Europe would have been laid open to invasion.

 

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

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IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy